On November of 1960, the Japanese government announced that it would acquire the Starfighters
as its standard air superiority fighter. An industrial cartel headed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was given the responsibility for the license manufacture of the Starfighter in Japan. At first, the Japanese Starfighter would be
assembled in Japan from Lockheed-supplied components, but ultimately the Starfighter would be built in Japan entirely from Japanese-manufactured components.

The Japanese Starfighter was given the designation F-104J, the J standing for Japan. It was similar in overall structure to the F-104G, but was equipped as an all-weather
interceptor rather than as an air-to-ground strike aircraft. One of the reasons for the choice of this option was that treaty restrictions at the time prevented Japan from acquiring any aircraft which had even a hint of an offensive role.

The F-104J was powered by a Japanese-built J79-IHI-11A engine built under license by Ishikawajima-Harima. It had an Automatics NASARR F-15J-31 fire control system
optimised for the air-to-air mode, and was armed with a 20-mm M61A1 cannon and four AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, two mounted under the wing and two carried on a rack on the fuselage centreline.

The first Lockheed-built F-104J (Model 683-07-14) flew on June 30, 1961. Three F-104Js were built by Lockheed. Deliveries of Mitsubishi-assembled F-104Js extended
from March of 1962 through March of 1965, a total of 29 machines being delivered. The delivery of Mitsubishi-manufactured F-104Js extended from March of 1965 through 1967. A total of 178 F-104Js were constructed Mitsubishi.

The F-104DJ (Model 583B-10-17) was the two-seat trainer version of the F-104J for Japan. They had electronics and other items that were compatible with those of the
single-seat version. Twenty examples were built by Lockheed and reassembled in Japan between July of 1962 and January 1964. No F-104DJ two-seaters were constructed by Mitsubishi

The F-104J entered with the Koku Jietai (Japanese Air Self Defence Force, or JASDF) in October of 1966. The first JASDF units to convert to the F-104J were the 201st
and 202nd Fighter Interceptor Squadrons (Hiko-tais) based at Chitose and Nyutabaru. The two hundred and ten F-104Js and the twenty F-104DJ operational trainers were used exclusively in the interceptor role by seven Hiko-tais (the 201st to 207th) of the Koku Jieitai.

Beginning in December of 1981, the Japanese Starfighters were replaced by Mitsubishi-built F-15J/F-15DJ Eagles. The last JASDF F-104J was retired by the 207th Hiko-tai
in March of 1986.

After the retirement from the front line operation, some F-104s were used by ADTW(Air Development and Testing Wing) for miscellaneous duties such as chaser plane.

The last duties for JASDF F-104J were to be unmanned target drones. Two F-104Js were modified to UF-104J experimental drones and tested by ADTW. After that, 14
Starfighters converted to UF-104JA target drone and all of them were shot down at firing range located near Iwo-Jima.